For smokers
You add tiny, mini, useless balconies so that you can check off another tick box on a zillow or trulia search, justify an increased rental cost.
Then you make the balconies as small as possible, as featureless as possible, and throw a whole bunch of rules into your rental agreement that prevent you from actually using them for basically any reason: Can’t smoke on the balcony, can’t dry clothes on it, can’t cook on it, can’t display any thing like a flag or banner on the balcony because of some made up aesthetic code, etc.
I’ve lived in a lot of different apartments of differing quality and location, and while I’m not saying that modern apartment residential balconies are entirely a scam, they very often are.
Can’t smoke on the balcony,
Because that smoke goes into other people’s apartments. People who may not also be smokers or may have asthma or other medical conditions in which 2nd hand smoke is bad. not actually a building choice… most states now bar smoking inside or near a multi-unit residential building.
can’t dry clothes on it,
19 states have some form of “right to dry” legislation, most of which would protect drying on patio space.
can’t cook on it,
usually a matter of firecode. where I am, it’s illegal to have wood burning fire pits or charcoal grills, but gas grills are fine. Also, turkey friers.
These rules are because people are stupid and have caused apartment fires numerous times with these things. can you use charcoal safely? sure. Also, another reason smoking is generally illegal. there’s always that one smoker that forgets to clear out the ashtray every so often and that catches fire. (or they put a tissue in it or something, and that’s not at all fire retardant.)
can’t display any thing like a flag or banner on the balcony because of some made up aesthetic code, etc.
not actually legal. if there’s a residential building code that bans political speech (banners, flags, etc) then that’s a first amendment violation. The apartment can (maybe) ban things in their contract agreement, but that’s not a building code. that’s a contract agreement, and as long as it’s not exactly graphic, it probably falls into the “unenforceable” category.
19 states have some form of “right to dry” legislation, most of which would protect drying on patio space.
Two points which I would like to interject here:
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OP (of either the post or comment above) may not be in the United States, and
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Even if they are, there are 50 states and 1 capital district. That means those 19 states only make up roughly a third of the United States. Odds are they are not in one of them.
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that’s a first amendment violation
It is a first amendment violation when THE STATE and ONLY THE STATE restricts your expression. You can absolutely have your expression restricted by private agreements that you willingly enter into.
When it’s a private agreement, that’s not BUILDING CODE.
Read my comment again.
Building codes are regulations imposed by city, state, or federal governments. Not by HOAs or landlords. If there is a building code that restricts political speech, it’s a first amendment violation.
Okay but the original comment never mentioned building codes, but the rental agreement
You can blame Jeff Bezos, George Clooney, and Nestle for that.
You’re going to have to walk us through that one, please.
I figure Jeff Bezos and Nestle ARE guilty of so much evil shit that they get away with, that it’s not actually in bad faith to blame them for things they had nothing to do with. They can accept blame for SOMETHING for once in their miserable god damned evil lives.
As for Clooney…well he’s just a smug bastard, and my Clooney bashing is well known here on Lemmy.
So you CAN blame them all for whatever it was we were talking about. Doesn’t make it true…per se…but you CAN blame them for it! Because fuck them anyways!
Ok. So you’re 15 and ‘edgy’.
97% of the time, the average car just sits in the parking space, taking up space not being used.
I guess you can say something similar applied to balconies. They are probably being used, but only a small portion of the day.
Part of it might just be that is increases the value of the apartment
They are not human friendly.
In some places that is a strategy to satisfy zoning requirements. The builder has to provide a minimum amount of outdoor area per dwelling unit. They could create a large ground-level courtyard, or they can create a bunch of tiny balconies that sum up to the same total area. The
ladderlatter strategy allows a larger building to exist on the same lot.Edit: Stupid voice-to-text always gets me.
A different design other than a basic box would allow them to make a large outdoor area at basically any level they want, not necessarily the ground, but that’s of course more expensive as well.
so like, even if it were a box…
They don’t really have to encase each floor. most buildings are concrete, and they could just as easily seal that floor off and leave the observation platform open. But the reality is that it gets pretty windy up that high, and most people won’t want to be out there for very long at all. And not at all if it’s at all inclement.
not to mention… jumpers.
jumpers deserve rights too
Jumping is a bad way to go.
Personally, assisted suicide should be allowed; (but also maybe mandate a few rounds of therapy?) this way people don’t have to find out what being a human shaped puddle is like, because they jumped from not-high-enough.
So pot plants have somewhere to die
People want the option to use their balcony. Then they realize it’s usually not so pleasant being exposed like that to the sun, wind, temp.
… or just ‘exposed’. to neighbors, passers-by, and the pervert in the corner office across the street.
As someone who can barely approach the edge of a 3-story parking structure, I would come unraveled on one of those balconies.
Three stories? You’re a brave soul.
Depends on where you live. In Japan, most of the time it’s either way too hot to hang out on the balcony or way too cold. In Europe it’s fine in many places for most of the year.
Some of it also has to do with rent prices which can be higher if you have a balcony.
Also, and again in Japan: There is an emergency balcony exit in some apartment buildings in case a natural disaster hits. It’s probably easier to climb your way down a bunch of balconies with holes in the ground than a blank wall
I live in Berlin, and while I don’t have a balcony myself, I spend a lot of time enviously starring at my neighbours that do, as they use them quite a bit.
plants and barbecues
I occasionaly hear about people having their freezer out on the balcony. It makes sense for colder countries, as the temperature difference would be lower than if it were inside. But on the other hand, I’m pretty sure most freezers are not built to endure weather.
freezers work reasonably well in cold climates, provided they don’t try to auto-defrost, fridges not so much.
I’m curious, what makes fridges bad in cold climates?
the insides freeze, also compressors need their oil to not be a gel.
Ah, that makes sense! Thanks!
As a counterexample, look at the Marina City towers in Chicago (aka the corncobs); all of the units have balconies, and the balconies are definitely a selling point. They’re quite large; in the case of the studios, the balcony can be nearly as large as the living space. (I think that I recently saw a nearly all original condo in Marina City go up for sale in the mid $400s? It was an interesting time capsule.)
And yet I never see people on the corncob balconies
I’ve seen people on them. Not a ton. But I would see people on them every so often when I was heading to shows at House of Blues, usually later in the evening in the summer and early fall. I can’t imagine using them in the middle of winter, when it’s -10F and winds are whipping around at 30mph.
You couldn’t pay me to go out on a balcony if it’s higher than 1 story. Fuck heights.
I had a friend that was drunk and was smoking and leaning back on a balcony and went over. No one even heard him. One minute he was there, the next minute he was gone. No one even looked down for a few minutes because people were regularly coming and going from the balcony and people just assumed he went back inside.
Broke both his arms, his neck, fucked up his back, and had a major concussion. I think maybe he broke some ribs too. Really fucked him up. He didn’t die, but the head injury caused a dramatic personality change and the neck and back stuff created chronic pain.
Another guy I knew intentionally jumped off a dorm balcony and severely and multiply fractured both his legs and fucked his knees forever.
Don’t… uh, accidentally drop from great heights, people.
I’m sorry to hear about your friend. I hope he’s doing well, all things considered. I will refrain from being drunk on a balcony. I don’t like being drunk anyways.
